1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a label supplying apparatus for supplying a label such as a certificate label or the like to the mouth of a bag which is filled up with a material such as a livestock feed or the like.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
One conventional label supplying apparatus for supplying a bag which is filled up with a compound livestock feed with a certificate label that indicates the name of the fodder, the ratio of the mixed ingredients thereof, and other information is known from Japanese laid-open utility model publication No. 57-16823.
The label supplying apparatus disclosed in this document includes a storage box for storing certificate labels, a support arm disposed in confronting relationship to an access opening of the storage box and having a holder with a solid adhesive filled in its distal end, a takeout device for actuating the support arm for swinging movement, a transfer device for transferring the support arm with a certificate label bonded to the holder to a predetermined position, peeling rollers for peeling the certificate label off the support arm, guide belts for guiding the mouth of a bag to a position near the peeling rollers, and another guide belt for delivering the peeled certificate label together with the bag to a sewing device.
When the takeout device angularly moves the support arm from a home position, the holder on the distal end of the support arm moves toward the access opening of the storage box, and the holder holds a certificate label in the storage box with the solid adhesive. The support arm then swings back to the home position to take out the certificate label, a piece at a time, from the storage box through the access opening thereof. Then, the transfer device translates the support arm to feed the certificate label bonded to the holder toward the peeling rollers. The certificate label is then peeled off the holder by the peeling rollers, and supplied to the mouth of a bag.
The label supplying apparatus is required to periodically supply the adhesive to its holder, since the holder takes out the certificate label from the storage box by causing a certificate label to be attached thereto with the aid of the solid adhesive. The transfer device transfers the removed certificate label toward the peeling rollers by means of a cylinder that translates the support arm from the home position toward a position near the peeling rollers. Therefore, the support arm is required to return to the home position after having fed the certificate label to the peeling rollers. More particularly, the piston of the cylinder has to make a reciprocating movement each time a certificate label is supplied to the mouth of a bag. Consequently, it takes a relatively long period of time to supply a certificate label to the mouth of a bag, or the number of certificate labels that can be supplied in a unit period of time is relatively small. Furthermore, the conventional label supplying apparatus is complex in overall structure, and the cost of manufacture thereof is high.